The darkest days of COVID-19 produced the darkest nights. With my head on my pillow, my worried mind raced.
Inevitable thoughts of doom swirled around my brain during the peak of the crisis. Calm. I needed calm. But how?
Serenity arose and finally soothed me when my late-night mind focused on vacations of yore. These remembrances made me realize that the incredible experiences of past travel were some of the best times of my life.
The first significant vacation in most adults’ lives is their honeymoon, but the details are the easiest to forget because, for many, it took place so long ago. But, during daunting nights of COVID, specifics that I hadn’t thought of in years were lassoed from the farthest chambers of my mind and flung to the forefront. Once there, I clung tightly to those memories, never wanting to mentally let go of the metaphoric rope.
It was during these lonely nights that I vowed, post-vaccination, my wife and I would return to my honeymoon spot as a first order of business – or, in this case, pleasure. Based on my experiences, I urge everyone to do the same.
Honeymoons represent a simpler, innocent, and carefree time of your life, when all was right with the world. With the longing for travel finally being fulfilled again as the country recovers from the pandemic, the time is right to revisit that romantic spot with your significant other. I made good on that vow in May 2021, and what I encountered was “sweet” not only in sentiment, but in name.
Sweetgrass Inn (photos, below) is a brand-new hotel, opened in April 2021, at Wild Dunes Resort, our honeymoon spot from decades ago. Wild Dunes Resort is located on the north tip of Isle of Palms, S.C., a slender barrier island of a city located a half-hour east of Charleston.
Wild Dunes Resort is a private, gated community of owned and rented beach houses, suites, condos, cottages, and two hotels. The 1,600-acre resort property features two acclaimed golf courses, a world-ranked tennis center with 17 courts including a stadium court, four resort pools and hot tubs, biking and walking trails, bike and beach-chair rentals, complimentary shuttles around the resort, and, most important, access to the serene Isle of Palms beach.
On our honeymoon, we rented a spacious condo, but this time the allure of the newly minted Sweetgrass Inn reeled us in. The 153-room contemporary hotel features a sweeping, curved design that matches the concave Isle of Palms beach, just a short boardwalk stroll away.
The Sweetgrass Inn impressed with inviting rooms that boast modern coastal comfort featuring tasteful décor, a 9-by-14 balcony, spacious walk-in shower, and much more. Striking light fixtures brightened all common areas, including normally mundane hallways. Hotel amenities included a sparkling spa and fitness center, an indoor restaurant, poolside grill, pizzeria, art gallery, firepit, and even mini-fountains shooting up from the pool’s splash pad that light up nightly in dozens of color combinations. Cornhole and ping-pong tables are located poolside, and the resort offers “island adventures” for children. Coastal expeditions, such as stand-up paddleboarding and kayaking, are also available.
The overall vibe is one that balances beachy aesthetics with Lowcountry charm. The best Wild Dunes restaurant, Coastal Provisions, features exquisite seafood choices and perhaps the best 8-ounce beef tenderloin in the state. The resort is in the process of adding more restaurants to its eight-strong stable.
All these attributes make the Sweetgrass ideal not only for honeymooners but for vacationers with or without children. Encompassing four acres, the Sweetgrass Inn also features an 8,000-square-foot grand ballroom and 3,000-square-foot rooftop ballroom with a 6,000-square-foot ocean-view terrace, ideal for wedding parties or corporate retreats.
Despite all these distinctive features, Wild Dunes Resort’s ultimate draw is its 2½ miles of pristine coastline. The expansive beach of well-groomed sand, pocketed by nearby rolling dunes surrounded by vegetation, invited us for seemingly never-ending walks that featured crashing waves, gliding gulls, a soothing breeze, and a hunt for sand dollars like we had found decades earlier.
While sinking our feet in the Atlantic Ocean’s Isle of Palms beach on our walks, we may have retraced the same steps we took decades earlier during our honeymoon. Despite the passage of time, the post-COVID trip to Wild Dunes Resort and the Sweetgrass Inn made us realize that the sands of time have not run out. They have begun anew.
Getting Around the Area
Unlike our honeymoon days, when we were content to simply stay put at Wild Dunes, we did venture out. There is plenty to do in the area, as Charleston is famous for a reason.
In Charleston, we enjoyed a fabulous farmers market. The city’s cobblestone streets featured famous pastel antebellum houses. The French Quarter was a must-do. The Battery District promenade, along with Waterfront Park, overlooked Charleston Harbor. We traversed those waters to tour Fort Sumter National Monument, where the first shots of the Civil War rang out.
The Tanger Outlets in North Charleston tempted us with 80 stores in a refined setting.
We reached these destinations in a 2021 Chrysler Pacifica, which cloaked us with safety features to ensure that we would be able to come back again someday. But the Pacifica is much more than an ultra-safe van. The new-look Pacifica van (touring model) blended SUV characteristics, such as a reimagined rear look with a full-width taillight and a larger grille for an overall new sculpted body. The interior dazzled with advanced driver aids and wireless technology. We were amazed by hands-free power sliding doors and a hands-free power liftgate.
These features sure weren’t around back in the days of our honeymoon. Just like us, Chrysler doesn’t get older, it gets better.